The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Hythie Till Formation

Computer Code: HYTIL Preferred Map Code: notEntered
Status Code: Full
Age range: Devensian Stage (QD) — Devensian Stage (QD)
Lithological Description: Gravelly, clayey silty sand diamicton. Typically brown/dark brown (10YR 4/3), with greyish brown/grey ped faces, very stiff, non-calcareous, matrix-supported. Clast angularity ranges from angular to subrounded. Clast lithologies are varied and include psammitic, pelitic and quartzitic metasedimentary rock, felsite, mafic igneous rocks, slate, grey granite and sparse red sandstone, flint and a single Norwegian "Rhomb Porphyry". Clast fabrics indicate glacial transport from the west and westsouthwest. Interpreted as a subglacial till.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Typically the formation has a sharp, planar, subhorizontal, erosional basal boundary on sediments of the Corsend Gelifluctate Bed (e.h. east and south faces, Kirkhill Quarry (infilled). In other situations the basal boundary can be more complex - e.g. northeast face, Leys Quarry (disused). Here the formation displays either a sharp, undulating, unconformable, basal boundary on brown diamicton of the Rottenhill Till Formation; or a sharp to gradational basal/lateral, glaciotectonic, boundary with sheets and rafts of black clayey diamicton of the Corse Diamicton Member (Whitehills Glacigenic Formation).
Definition of Upper Boundary: Typically the upper boundary is the present ground surface. Within the valleys of the north and south Ugie Waters the upper boundary can be sharp, erosional with overlying glaciofluvial or alluvial sands and gravels.
Thickness: To 3m
Geographical Limits: Buchan, northeast Scotland. The formation is known in the vicinity of Kirkhill Quarry (infilled) (centred on NK 0120 5285) and Leys Quarry (disused) (centred on NK 0040 5250), and more widely as a surface, or subsurface deposit in the area of north and south Ugie Water valleys on Sheet 87W (Ellon). The unit might be regionally significant and present locally across northeastern Scotland.
Parent Unit: East Grampian Glacigenic Subgroup (EGD)
Previous Name(s): Hythie Till Formation (HYTIL)
Kirkhill Upper Till [Obsolete Name and Code: Use HYTIL] (-2859)
Hythie Member (-977)
Hythie Till Formation (HYTIL)
Unweathered Kirkhill Till [Obsolete Name and Code: Use HYTIL] (-2256)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Partial Type Section  East face, Kirkhill Quarry (infilled), 7km southeast of Stricken, Buchan, northeast Scotland. Connell, Hall and Romans, 1984. 
Partial Type Section  Northeast face of Leys Quarry (disused), 6.5km southeast of Stricken, Buchan, northeast Scotland. Connell (unpublished work 1990 - details available from ERC. 
Reference(s):
Merritt, J W, Connell, E R and Bridgland, D R (editors). 2000. The Quaternary of the Banffshire Coast and Buchan; Field Guide. (London: Quaternary Research Association.) 
Connell, E R, Edwards, K J and Hall, A M. 1982. Evidence for two pre-Flandrian palaeosols in Buchan, Scotland. Nature, 297, 570-572. 
Connell, E R, Hall, A M and Romans, J C C. 1984. Kirkhill Quarry. 57-81 in Hall, A M (Editor), Buchan Field Guide. (Cambridge: Quaternary Research Association.) 
Connell, E R and Hall, A M. 1987. The periglacial history of Buchan, Scotland. 277-285 in Boardman, J (Editor), Periglacial Processes and Landforms in Britain and Ireland. Periglacial processes in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 
Hall, A M and Connell, E R. 1991. The glacial deposits of Buchan, northeast Scotland. 129-136 in Ehlers, J, Gibbard, P L and Rose, J (editors), Glacial Deposits in Great Britain and Ireland. (Rotterdam: Balkema.) 
Hall, A M and Jarvis, J. 1993. Kirkhill. 225-230 in Gordon, J E and Sutherland, D G (editors), Quaternary of Scotland. Geological Conservation Review Series: 6. (London: Chapman and Hall.) 
Sutherland, D G. 1999. Scotland. 99-114 in Bowen D Q (Editor), A revised correlation of Quaternary deposits in the British Isles. Special Report of The Geological Society of London, No.23. 
Merritt, J W, Auton, C A, Connell, E R, Hall, A M and Peacock, J D. 2003. The Cainozoic geology and landscape evolution of north-east Scotland. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheets 66E, 67, 76E, 77, 86E, 87W, 87E, 95, 96W, 96E and 97 (Scotland) 
Connell, E R and Hall, A M. 2000. Kirkhill and Leys quarries. 65-67 in Merritt, J W, Connell, E R and Bridgland, D R (editors), The Quaternary of the Banffshire Coast and Buchan: Field Guide. (London: Quaternary Research Association.) 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
none recorded or not applicable